Unsubstantiated political motive claims in lawyer’s death bad for the country

Earlier in the week, the grim reaper visited the Luhya Nation yet again in its merciless manner. This time, it took away a youthful upward mobile lawyer working at a firm whose present and future does not look as bright.

In the wee hours of Sunday night, three hooded men visited a village in Matungu sub-county in Kakamega, cut through a fence, raided a young family’s new home and unleashed terror unknown. When they left, after hours of horror, a man was dead, his wife assaulted and the couple’s food eaten by the uninvited guests!

Emerging reports indicate that Ronald Lubya, a legal officer at Mumias Sugar Factory was felled by a bullet fired into his skull by the gang and was declared expired on arrival at the St Mary’s hospital in Mumias town. A very unfortunate incident indeed!

Mr Lubya’s death is another sad addition to the lives the country continues to lose unnecessarily to crime. It was reported that during the raid, the gangsters made away with various valuables including a laptop, a television and some money. These things are items that the lawyer and his family would have surrendered easily if the armed men just asked for them. There was absolutely no reason, unless there was, for the thieves to kill him.

Being a resident of this part of the country, I consider people like Lubya prominent members of our society. It is a fact that, at least, the lawyer had a promising future and though I may not have known him personally, being the head of the legal department of such a big firm, its current sickening financial predicament notwithstanding, Mr Lubya was headed in the right direction. His death therefore reminds me of another prominent brother we lost some time back.

On May 5 last year, we learnt of the sudden death of “prominent” Nairobi businessman Jacob Juma. Now, there so many uncomfortable similarities between these two individuals and how they died! To begin with, both Juma and now Lubya died relatively young, they were rising economically and both were felled by bullets. But what makes “us” even sadder is the fact that the two hail from the same neighbourhood in Western Kenya. My people are asking why the gods seem to be keen on taking away our suns at sunrise. It is, however, the political noise surrounding the demise of our brother that is making me a bit uncomfortable.

Just after the killing of Mr Juma last year, some politicians came out so loudly telling us how the deceased had confided in them details of plans for their pending elimination. Some announced how they knew the people behind the businessman’s death. Granted, Mr Juma had a penchant for posting his worries and conquests on the social media quite often that could easily be construed as premonition. But these details could hardly sustain a prosecution and the subsequent public utterances seem to have done little to help. It is slightly over a year now since Juma died and most of those who publicly said they knew who killed and how Juma was killed are yet to give investigators enough information to go to court with.

And now Lubya is dead and the circus is repeating itself. Since that Sunday, the social and conventional media has been flooded by allegations, mostly by politicians, about the people that killed the young lawyer.

Whereas I have no evidence to rule out foul play, in fact there is every reason to suspect that is the case since murder is as foul as they come, the people making the allegations have shied away from naming names. If they are as confident as they want as to believe, those purporting to have intelligence on the forces behind Lubya’s death should, at least give more details of the alleged scheme, but more importantly, approach investigating authorities with the information.

While I appreciate the need for explanation from those tasked with providing us with security whenever such deaths happen, I shudder to imagine that someone will use the loss of an innocent life to seek political mileage. We are, understandably, in an electioneering mood and every political player will want to take advantage of any and all unfolding events to drum support for their cause while deflating their opponents. But every caution needs to be taken whenever the players want to make public statements.

In situations such as the death of Mr Lubya, making unsubstantiated claims alluding to a political motive is tantamount to shouting fire in a filled cinema hall. One just never knows how the crowd will react and the enormity of the aftermath.

Let’s cry for our fallen brother. But let’s cry with caution.

Mr Mugolla is a high school teacher in Busia County

[email protected]